SigmaU Blog

Look for the good and look for the overwhelming evidence that life is amazing!

Despite today's challenges and tomorrow's obstacles, life is great. Hey, you and I woke up on the right side of the soil this morning!

Often when things start to crumble around us, we look for evidence that life is hard. While life will always pose challenges big and small, there are also ways in which we can redirect our focus to live happier right now.

Look for it.

If we’re consistently looking for evidence that supports our belief that life is hard, we will find it. We will also find that life is good if we’re looking for evidence of that too. In fact, when we look for the good, it snowballs, and we tend to see more and more of it. if this becomes habitual for us, we will find the good in the smallest of details like the birds singing, the gorgeous weather. We will have moments of deep gratitude in simple acts like having a shower with running water when so many on the planet do not have...

Most people don’t realize the incredible power they have to change their lives in an instant.  The most powerful tool each one of us has is the immense power of our minds.

Unfortunately, most people react to the inner dialogue which is typically negative rather than consciously redirecting their thoughts in a positive way. The good news is anyone can change their lives dramatically by changing how they think.

Now I’m not going to tell you WHAT to think, there’s a big difference there. I’m going to share HOW other successful people think and you can decide what resonates with you.

Here are some of the lessons that I’ve learned the most successful people do!

Clearly Defined Goals

The most successful people in the world have clearly defined goals. They know what they want out of life, where they’re headed, and the steps required to get there! When we’re striving towards something bigger than ourselves that makes us stretch and grow,...

Personal development is such an important and life-changing journey.  To pursue mastery of oneself requires deep reflection, challenging limiting beliefs and releasing lies we may have told ourselves up to this point in life.

Our words are incredibly powerful and what we say to ourselves matters much more than what others say to us. While others may wound our ego and hurt our feelings or sharp words may jeopardize relationships, the most important dialogue is internal.

I struggled for years with self-deprecating language, lies and stories that didn’t support my growth. Once I released the grip that these lies had on my life my world opened to more positivity living, healthier relationships and increased self-confidence.

Here are some of the lies that I told myself, see if any of them resonate with you…

• It takes money to make money.
• You’re only beautiful if you’re a size six.
• You’re not leadership material.
• Who do you think you are sharing your...

Influence is something that we’re constantly participating in. We’re either influencing others or we’re being influenced by others. Recently, my colleague Lindsay shared some insights from one of her favourite books “Captivate” by Vanessa Van Edwards.

She shared that the reality is that we’re influenced all the time by other people’s energy.  We also influence others in the room by our energy.  What kind of energy do you want to be remembered for?

We know people who make us feel alive, excited, and refreshed. We also dread visits with those who make us feel edgy, irritable, and somehow like we’ve just run a marathon!  Energy influences relationships but there are some other factors when you consider positive influence.

In High Performance Coaching ™ we look at three key areas of influence and they are based on how positive influencers impact us.

They teach us how to think

There’s a very important distinction...

I’ll admit it, the past few weeks have been a struggle. I’ve been pulled into the news and sensationalism of news stories and doom and gloom. As a result, I found myself cynical, negative and on edge. I’ve always guarded my mind from the news. It’s been a discipline to ignore the news since 2008 when a coach challenged me to give it up for a month and see how my life changed. Well, it changed in an incredible way! During one of the most challenging economic times to run a business, ours grew 43% and I’m a big believer that it was because of the positive mindset I adopted during that time!

Some may say that missing the news is naïve.  I’m here to challenge that way of thinking and ask that you consider that if anything absolutely critical is happening in the world, it will filter through to you. You’re going to find out the major news that impacts you directly and that watching the news on a loop is one of the worst things you can...

Confession

I have a confession! I’m an internal optimist, which means that I tend to see the good and block out the bad.  It has served me well through most of my life until COVID.

See, if I’m honest, I never really spent any time thinking about what could possibly go wrong. I was always reinforcing my goals and dreams and had a deep sense of gratitude for all of the good in my life. While this is incredibly important, the biggest lesson that I’ve learned during COVID has been the importance of planning for the worst but remaining in hopeful anticipation of the best!

Knock Out!

During one of our team huddles, the speaker (I cannot remember which one) said these powerful words and it knocked me on the chin!

“It's not the thing that broke you that broke you. It's that you never even thought about the fact that you could be broken.”

Hot damn! It’s true! I never considered failing. Failing was never an option. Going backwards was a foreign idea...

A little while ago we had “coffee-gate” go down in our home. To paint a picture, the alarm went off at 4:00 a.m. My incredibly loving husband got up a few minutes before me and had made me a cup of coffee.  Just as he was coming to give that cup of joy to me, in the dark, he missed the side table and coffee went everywhere! All over the beige carpet, the white sheets, the light grey fabric bed frame. It was literally a hot mess up in here! :D

In that moment, I had two distinct choices: I could either let it ruin my day or I could reframe the situation and stick to my regular routine to set my day up for success. I know that when we’re not intentional and are reactive in situations like these, we lose control.  When we intentionally SHIFT, we reclaim our power!  So how the heck do you make that SHIFT?

S – Self Talk

The way we talk to ourselves is so incredibly important. Studies show that most of the time our thoughts are biased to the...